The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[shade3891]

Hoping that login screen isn't final...

Kinda looks like shit

It's only the login screen, who cares?! It's like 2 seconds on your screen before going your warband overview.

[Lady Atia]

There's a new survey going out now accessible from the Battle.net launcher for whoever's selected. Some of it's referring to existing content or expected features (class updates, profession updates, etc.) but there's some new stuff mentioned:

• Class order halls becoming a permanent feature with new quests and progression
• Being able to use your Warband alts as party members in follower dungeons and delves
• Reworked new/returning player experience with lore catch up
• In-game lore guide with some kind of exploration mechanic and associated rewards
• Customizable character select screens, including being able to display mounts and pets
• Adding new customization for existing races and new emotes
• "Variety of PvP opportunities", listed separately from updating BGs/arenas

BIG WIN if they bring all of these (and they usually do, going from past surveys). Out of interest, what does the pvp thing include?? Maybe a seasonal battlepass, or the return of gladiator mounts farmable just like mythic mounts down the line????

[Sondrelk]

BIG WIN if they bring all of these (and they usually do, going from past surveys). Out of interest, what does the pvp thing include?? Maybe a seasonal battlepass, or the return of gladiator mounts farmable just like mythic mounts down the line????

My guess would be variable PvP opportunities means more stuff related to War Mode. Possibly even some way to have ranked farming.

[Lady Atia]

Here were the topics brought up. This reminds me I forgot the itemization overhaul mentioned as well. Maybe they're trying to make non-weapon/jewelry slots more than just stat sticks.



Scroll down a bit with WoW selected, here's where it was for me.

Uhhhh nice. What did they ask about mounts?!?!?!

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Would be nice to have it in EK or Kalimdor, though I think it's better future class halls goes the Druid Class Hall route by having portals to thematic areas. In the case of an Evoker class hall maybe areas like Twilight Highlands, Wyrmrest, Stormheim.

Just so long as it isn't just Valdrakken classic or somesuch.

And it's a double win if they bring back class halls with a new evoker hall since we will need it for remix: legion. I would set it within the DotI dungeon tbh.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Class order halls becoming a permanent feature with new quests and progression

There are a few issues I have with this.

First is class order halls as the base you hang out at, which ties into the broader issue that WoW wastes its many player gubs by forcing players to hang out exclusively in the current expansion capital, and Stormwind/Orgrimmar. My ideal would be to imitate GW2's model where all hubs across the fame's history have all relevant game services (transmog, void storage, portals, keystone NPC, item level upgrade npc, work orders NPC, etc), and use the megaserver phasing to keep every hub populated, just like how every loumge and city is kept populated in GW2. That way players can set their hearthstones to tgeir preferred location rather than being forced into locations they might not like.

Second is the issue of players being inappropriately shoved into class order halls for their race/class/faction fantasy. Sunwalker Tauren are sun worshipping druids/fire wielding shamans who have absolutely no business being shoved underneath a human Church and wearing Silver Hand armor. Even Sin'dorei Blood Knights - while being aesthetically close to the Silver Hand as they are civilized plate wearers - lore wise are quite different too. Zandalari dinomancers and Kul'Tiran Thornspeakers sre likewise inappropriate for the Night Elf themed Emerald Dream. Shadowmoon Clan orcs in a human/Draenei chapel. Wildhammer dwarves/draenei shamans in a primarily Horde shaman themed base/organization. And so on.

Now we once again get into the issue that Blizzard probably does not want to create a base for every race/class combo, but faction themed class order halls would be more appropriate. Alliance paladins keep their Church while Tauren Sunwalkers and Sin'dorei Blood Knights rally behind their sun motif as warriors of the Horde. Not every class would need Horde and Alliance counterparts. The Monk and hunter halls could stay as is. Horde mages would be better served being based with the Sunreavers in Silvermoon, but given how close the Sunreavers are with the Kirin Tor (perfidy comitted during MoP when they smuggled weapons of mass destruction aside), the surviving Alliance Kirin Tor mages could take up residence in Silvermoon too in the wake of Dalaran's fall.

Being able to use your Warband alts as party members in follower dungeons and delves

This could thereotically be nice, though I am not sure how often I would use this feature. I have not set foot into a WoW follower dungeon yet as it is for normal difficulty only, when I am at the M+ stage. I guess maybe I would use it once in the upcoming expansion when going through the story. I used trust NPCs in FF14 a lot for AFK levelling alt jobs while also watching youtube and for farming transmogs. From what I hear, delves might give almost mythic loot so I might do them more, but perhaps with an IRL friend who I did M+ dungeons with.

Reworked new/returning player experience with lore catch up

The new player experience definitely needs to be improved. Exile's Reach is a generic D&D adventure (and not an engaging one like Cata Azshara) that does not show what is unique about WoW's setting/aesthetics. And then exiting Exile's Reach to go quest in enpty old expansion zones and then become inexplicably weaker as you level up (it took you 2 frostbolts to kill a mob, now three) does not feel good. It also does not feel good to be going through an expansion's story ans then get directed to go into a climatic raid, only to not be able to do that in a satisfying manner because the expansion is not current anymore, so you struggle to get into it (recruiting or getting into a transmog run), and the levelcapped people you are playing with will decimate the bosses so you don't see their mechanics or RP.

Customizable character select screens, including being able to display mounts and pets

A background screen set on airship travelling the world would be quite nice. It would be nice to have my Pepe on my head and my Xu-fu at my side. I wonder if what other customizations could be applied. I play my Tauren using three items to increase my size (darkmoon firewater + winterfall firewater + firewater sorbet) to look like an actual big tauren like in the art, abd I constantly feed my Xu-fu magical pet biscuits to increase its size so it does not look like a tiny newborn kitten compared to me. I don't expect Blizzard to implement this, but it would be nice. Would also be cool if the MoP legendary cloak proc effect toys would display too.

Adding new customization for existing races and new emotes

Probably the biggest thing Blizzard could do here would be to allow players to change their idle pose like in Star Trek Online and FF14. It would be nice if non-monk classes could carry their weapon resting on their shoulder.

"Variety of PvP opportunities", listed separately from updating BGs/arenas

I would like more large scale warfare. Some of the best times I had were the huge RP-PvP battles over the Thandol Span during MoP, the big wars in Darkshore during the prepatch or huge zergs fighting each other in Vol'dun during the first week of BFA, or getting matched against another premade in Alterac Valley. It is a shame Strand of the Ancients was removed.

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Yes to all.

I try to be careful about just saying "yes" to anything. Runescape implemented ingame polls and the playerbase just said "yes" to almost every question when it came to implementing new features, and that ruined the game. So I try to elaborate on my thoughts.

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I like it. I main death knight, we can literally fly our class hall around, we can park it anywhere the new content is.

Would be easy to implement by simply copy-pasting Acherus over every continent and just having one phased at a tims, though it would feel like there would be hardly any other players as the DK players who are based in Acherhs would be split across several different locations (Acherus above Kul'Tiras, Acherus above Khaz Algar, etc).

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Also the lore catch up/exploration has the potential to be very cool. Maybe be able to do a solo couple hour run through of each xpacs main story points including raids using the new story mode & follower dungeons.

I think a lore catchup is a lost cause. 10 years ago, Nobbel was making 3 hour long lore videos explaining Arthas, one character. Even the Lorerunner's summary series od Warcraft's lore runs several hours long. The lore is simply far too long and expansive to be summarized in a timely manner. When players sit to play a game, they want to play a game, not have watch hours of boring homework before they can finally play the game they actually wanted to play in the first place. The unfortunate reality is that you had to be there for WoW's story back in the day. The best thing WoW can do now is not by trying to get people to care about an old expansion, but to care about the story that is going on right now. Which means Blizzard needs to nail the fundamentals of basic storytelling for the moment to moment questing experience: creating likeable characters and maintaining tension so people remained engaged. Blizzard has been struggling to do this after WoD.

[Dracullus]

Player Housing in Midnight with Guild Halls in The Last Titan sounds probable to me.

I think that too. If I remember correctly there were surveys or interviews about housing before DF.

About halls, I'm more hyped they are thinking about making it more of an evergreen feature. People overhype Legion version too much, beside realative short class stories and few hidden skins unlock only gameplay there was mission table and unlocking artifact traits.

Also I have personal fear that in Ulduar expansion my warrior will end up with fucking vrykuls again instead of having proper hall.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

They are not asking about player housing

Blizzard seems to be idealogically opposed to player housing, sadly. In a recent interview for TWS, it was brought up and the dev said "next question". You could tinfoil that it's a feature they intend to announce for Midnight, but given that it has been 20 years and they never did it, I think it is more than likely that Blizzard plans to never do it.

[Enrif]

I feel like that would clash with Aberrus's message that Neltharion never really had a legacy worth preserving, and that following him only leads to more madness and destruction. Might be better for them to create something entirely new. Or, if they are to stay with the Black Dragonflight (and areas in expansion continents are possible), they could use the Obsidian Citadel since that's more tied to Wrathion and Sabellian now since they reclaimed it. Or Wyrmrest Temple.

while i said it ties in with the legacy, doesn't mean that they will preserve it. I would rather say, subvert it. Where blackwing lair was once a place of horrible experiments and home to a cruel master, it can be turned to a seat of new perspective and not being defined by what made you, but what you make of what you have. Also the protection/liberation of fellow experiments that might still be there.

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BIG WIN if they bring all of these (and they usually do, going from past surveys). Out of interest, what does the pvp thing include?? Maybe a seasonal battlepass, or the return of gladiator mounts farmable just like mythic mounts down the line????

I think stuff like plunderstorm. Alternative ways to PvP that are not tied to the normal gameplay used. As a non-PvPer myself, i enjyed plunderstorm way more then any type of WoW PvP before.

[Dracullus]

Shit, almost July already and no sign of Arsenals for weapons coming to Remix. I was hoping to grab Trading Post on Monday, buy remaining stuff and resume break until late pre-patch.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A return to Class Halls would ideally need a rethink on every class hall to achieve better parity in terms of how thematic they are. And more importantly to ensure they are more evergreen.

Also this.

In MoP, my hearthstone was set to my Halfhill farm. I began each play session doing farm stuff before flying to the Shrine, and then from there either did MoP content or portalled to Orgrimmar. In WoD, I was based in the garrison and checked the facebook mission table, collected my work orders, and then portalled to Stormwind (since there was nothing to do in Draenor outside of raid). In Legion I mained DK so I started and ended play sessions in Acherus and didn't spend much time in Dalaran or Orgrimmar, also helped that I could teleport into RBGs from Acherus. But on other characters like my warrior, they spent more time in Stormwind/Orgrimmar than in the order halls. For Shadowlands, the Kyrian order hall was my base, not Oribos. I think the key factor in all of these is that they weren't too far away from the current content, and when I logged in there was some stuff in the base to do like do the farm or the facebook mission table.

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i don't think they should use the Forbidden Reach. I'm actually quite fond of the idea of using blackwing lair/descend. It ties into the evoker with the neltharion legacy, with them being created just like Nefarian tried to there. And most importantly, it would give them a place in EK/Kalimdor.

I could see the Ebonscales negotiating with Ebonhorn to garrison Aberrus, since the Black Dragonflight are few in number so they probably all want to hang out together and wouldn't want to be split between the two fortresses of the Obsidian Citadel and Aberrus). An underground fortresss in Zaralek would be a fantastical vista (the class order hall could be sst in the exterior, no loading screen so you could immedietely fly around Zaralek), perhaps even parts of the raid copypasted out into the world.

[Sondrelk]

Shit, almost July already and no sign of Arsenals for weapons coming to Remix. I was hoping to grab Trading Post on Monday, buy remaining stuff and resume break until late pre-patch.

Unless they plan to add it really late to add another boost of players, I can only imagine they have chosen to deliberately not add it for whatever reason.
Otherwise, the only reason I can see is that every relevant developer thinks it already exists or isn't needed, and therefore have completely forgotten about it.

[Teriz]

If they bring back class halls, Evokers should get something in Thaldrazus on the dragon isles.

Tinkers should get a class hall in Undermine, since in lore the Tinker’s Union is located there.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

As a dracthyr main, I'm frothing at the mouth at the prospect of an evoker class hall.

Probably gonna be the Forbidden Reach.

[huth]

BIG WIN if they bring all of these (and they usually do, going from past surveys). Out of interest, what does the pvp thing include?? Maybe a seasonal battlepass, or the return of gladiator mounts farmable just like mythic mounts down the line????

No description beyond that. That's literally what it says in the survey and isn't explained further.

[Sondrelk]

If they bring back class halls, Evokers should get something in Thaldrazus on the dragon isles.

Tinkers should get a class hall in Undermine, since in lore the Tinker’s Union is located there.

If you make it Thaldraszus why not just make it Valdrakken? Odds are it would be far more fitting. Even if I do love the idea of making Algeth'ar Academy into a Class Hall and actually let Dracthyr play Liz'rath or whatever it was called.

Forbidden Reach makes more sense and has plenty of space to add dedicated areas for each spec, fun activities, and unique utilities like portal rooms.

[micwini]

Shit, almost July already and no sign of Arsenals for weapons coming to Remix. I was hoping to grab Trading Post on Monday, buy remaining stuff and resume break until late pre-patch.

All I want is pet vendor.

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If you make it Thaldraszus why not just make it Valdrakken? Odds are it would be far more fitting. Even if I do love the idea of making Algeth'ar Academy into a Class Hall and actually let Dracthyr play Liz'rath or whatever it was called.

Forbidden Reach makes more sense and has plenty of space to add dedicated areas for each spec, fun activities, and unique utilities like portal rooms.

Probably the inside of that large cave. Where you start after you create a dracthyr.

[Teriz]

If you make it Thaldraszus why not just make it Valdrakken? Odds are it would be far more fitting. Even if I do love the idea of making Algeth'ar Academy into a Class Hall and actually let Dracthyr play Liz'rath or whatever it was called.

True. I simply prefer Thaldraszus, but yeah I could see them making it Valdrakken.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Is there any more information on this "new" Arathi Empire from the beta?

Personally, I'm intrigued about this supposed powerful empire of humans across the sea. A kingdom of Holy Light who are supposedly not too keen on non-humans.

I wonder what their reaction would be to the Arathi group in Hallowfall being half-elf.

[Raetary]

I wonder what their reaction would be to the Arathi group in Hallowfall being half-elf.

The whole empire is half-elven.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The whole empire is half-elven.

OHHHHHHHH shit